Council OKs $10,000 for Promises

Greeley tots and unborn babies will get a hand from city taxpayers next year.

Promises for Children, a prenatal care and young children’s program affiliated with United Way, will receive $10,000 in Greeley’s 2005 city budget, the city council decided Tuesday.

The organization also received $10,000 in 2004, its inaugural year.

Councilwoman Debbie Pilch asked the council to continue that gift, saying prenatal and early childhood care is a must: “It’s a proven fact that it works.”

According to program advocates, it’s also terribly important.

Greeley has abysmal performance in teen pregnancy, prenatal care and school readiness, and Promises addresses all those areas, said Jeannine Truswell, executive director of United Way of Weld County.

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The city is one of five Colorado communities to be considered a “city in crisis” by the Colorado Children’s Campaign, Truswell added.

Statewide, 4 percent of women don’t get any or enough prenatal care. In Greeley, it’s 12.6 percent of women, Truswell said. In addition, 20 percent of Colorado women who give birth don’t have a high school diploma. In Greeley, that number is 37 percent, she added.

Sheila Avers, director of children’s services for the United Way, was thrilled after the council decided 4-3 to support the funding. Pilch and fellow council members Pam Shaddock, Don Feldhaus and Mayor Tom Selders voted in favor; councilmen Ed Phillipsen, Carrol Martin and LeRoy Johnson voted no.

Councilman Ed Phillipsen said he thought the 2004 grant was a one-time-only gift.

“How can anyone say funding Promises is any more important than funding Reading Services of the Rockies, for instance?” he asked.

Also Tuesday, Radio Reading Services of the Rockies, a service for blind and visually impaired people, asked for $6,000 for 2005 and 2006.

Grace Napier, a retired University of Northern Colorado professor who is blind, said the service helps visually impaired people know what’s in newspapers and advertisements.

“Yes, you can read a novel, but that doesn’t help you about today or tomorrow,” she said, with her guide dog, Waffles, at her side. “We want to be informed citizens.”

Mayor Tom Selders said the council would consider the funding at a second budget hearing Dec. 7.